Mansfield Summit falls to Frisco Liberty rally in bid for state

Frisco Liberty forced three early turnovers and used a 13-0 run in the third quarter to defeat Mansfield Summit 43-39 on Saturday in the Class 5A Region II final at Curtis Culwell Center.

Trailing 20-17 at halftime, the Redhawks opened the third quarter by forcing three turnovers that turned into seven points. Liberty led 24-20 and never trailed again.

Liberty (32-6) heads to the Alamodome in San Antonio next week for the program’s first state tournament appearance.

“In the third quarter, they capitalized on some possessions, where in the first quarter we were able to get our hand on the ball and get some steals,” Summit coach Dawn Mailloux-Smith said.

The Redhawks led as many as 11 points in the second half.

“They were able to get on a little run on us and we found ourselves trying to dig to get back in,” Mailloux-Smith said.

The Jaguars got within three points in the fourth quarter before back-to-back layups pushed Liberty’s lead back to seven with 1:45 left.

Celsi Caraway had a team-high 12 points for Summit while Christina Baker added 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Summit finished 32-7 and had its best playoff run since winning the 4A state title in 2012.

“We missed the playoffs last year, so we took that a little bit personal and we were trying to get back to some of those traditional things we’ve always done at Summit,” Mailloux-Smith said. “I feel like we did a really good job of getting things turned around and heading to the direction we wanted to this year.”

“They’ve overcome adversity and injury and nobody imagined that we’d be sitting in this position,” Mailloux-Smith said. “The fact that we are speaks to them and the work they’ve put in, and I’m really proud of them.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Mansfield Summit falls to Frisco Liberty rally in bid for state."